Secure exchange feed market data embargo

ABSTRACT

Methods, devices, and systems for communicating market data with market participants involve obfuscating at least a portion of a first financial message. Communicating the market data also involves augmenting a second financial message with a key configured to remove the obfuscation from the obfuscated portion of the first financial message. The market data is ultimately communicated by transmitting the first financial message to a particular participant, and transmitting the second message to a plurality of participants. The particular participant may then use the key from the second financial message to remove the obfuscation of the first financial message.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation under 37 C.F.R. § 1.53(b) of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/034,742 filed Sep. 24, 2013 now U.S. Pat.No. 10,032,219, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

A financial instrument trading system, such as a futures exchange,referred to herein also as an “Exchange”, such as the Chicago MercantileExchange Inc. (CME), provides a contract market where financialinstruments, for example futures and options on futures, are traded.Futures is a term used to designate all contracts for the purchase orsale of financial instruments or physical commodities for futuredelivery or cash settlement on a commodity futures exchange. A futurescontract is a legally binding agreement to buy or sell a commodity at aspecified price at a predetermined future time. An option is the right,but not the obligation, to sell or buy the underlying instrument (inthis case, a futures contract) at a specified price within a specifiedtime. The commodity to be delivered in fulfillment of the contract, oralternatively the commodity for which the cash market price shalldetermine the final settlement price of the futures contract, is knownas the contract's underlying reference or “underlier.” The terms andconditions of each futures contract are standardized as to thespecification of the contract's underlying reference commodity, thequality of such commodity, quantity, delivery date, and means ofcontract settlement. Cash Settlement is a method of settling a futurescontract whereby the parties effect final settlement when the contractexpires by paying/receiving the loss/gain related to the contract incash, rather than by effecting physical sale and purchase of theunderlying reference commodity at a price determined by the futurescontract, price.

Typically, the Exchange provides for a centralized “clearing house”through which all trades made must be confirmed, matched, and settledeach day until offset or delivered. The clearing house is an adjunct tothe Exchange, and may be an operating division of the Exchange, which isresponsible for settling trading accounts, clearing trades, collectingand maintaining performance bond funds, regulating delivery, andreporting trading data. The essential role of the clearing house is tomitigate credit risk. Clearing is the procedure through which theClearing House becomes buyer to each seller of a futures contract, andseller to each buyer, also referred to as a novation, and assumesresponsibility for protecting buyers and sellers from financial loss dueto breach of contract, by assuring performance on each contract. Aclearing member is a firm qualified to clear trades through the ClearingHouse.

Current financial instrument trading systems allow traders to submitorders and receive confirmations, market data, and other informationelectronically via a network. These “electronic” marketplaces arealternative to pit based trading systems whereby the traders, or theirrepresentatives, all physically stand in a designated location, i.e. atrading pit, and trade with each other via oral and hand basedcommunication. Anyone standing in or near the trading pit may be privyto the trades taking place, i.e. who is trading, what they are offeringto trade (price and quantity), and what ultimately trades. Electronictrading systems attempt to replicate the trading pit environment in amarketplace of electronic form. In doing so, electronic trading systemsideally offer an efficient, fair and balanced market where market pricesreflect a true consensus of the value of traded products among themarket participants, where the intentional or unintentional influence ofany one market participant is minimized if not eliminated, and whereunfair or inequitable advantages with respect to information access areminimized if not eliminated.

One manner in which electronic marketplaces attempt to achieve thesegoals is by separating and restricting the communication of privatedata, e.g. orders and the responses thereto, from public data, e.g.market data, prices, etc. published to all participants. However, asmore traders place more trades, the volume of data being communicatedincreases as well, increasing the burden on the communicationinfrastructure and supporting resources that are used to generate andtransmit the communications in this manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative computer network system that may be usedto implement aspects of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of a message management module and amessage receipt device for use in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart for managing the communication of financialmessages, that may be implemented using the system of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative embodiment of a general computer system foruse with the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 depicts a diagram for managing the communication of market datawith financial messages.

FIG. 6 depicts a message receipt device or system for use with thecommunication of financial messages.

FIG. 7 depicts a flow chart for the communication of financial messagesthat may be implemented using the system of FIGS. 1 and 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

By separating private market data message generation and transmissionfrom the generation and transmission of corresponding public market datamessages there is the possibility that private data is communicatedbefore, or the transmission thereof otherwise overtakes the transmissionof, corresponding public data, thus potentially providing marketinformation to the recipient of the private data prior to other marketparticipants. This prior reception of market information may be anundesirable occurrence due to possible market information imbalances formarket participants. The disclosed embodiments relate to communicationof financial messages from an Exchange, such as the Chicago MercantileExchange (“CME”), to market participants whereby messages directed toparticular market participants may be wholly or in part encoded,disguised, or otherwise obfuscated such that private market datacontained in the messages is not recognizable by the particular marketparticipant. The obfuscation of the private market data may be designedsuch that data needed to remove the disguise or otherwise de-obfuscatethe data is provided in another message, directed to all marketparticipants, which may further contain data related to the privatemarket data but intended for public dissemination. The particular marketparticipant may receive the data needed to de-obfuscate the privatemarket data from the message directed to all market participants, thusensuring that the obfuscated private market data cannot be understood bythe particular market participant until the message directed to allmarket participants is received. In this way, the limited possibility ofa particular market participant receiving messages with private marketdata prior to other market participants receiving corresponding publicmarket data is removed, while at the same time, keeping private, highlysensitive data, private.

While the disclosed embodiments may be discussed in relation to tradingof futures and/or options on futures, it will be appreciated that thedisclosed embodiments may be applicable to any equity, options orfutures trading system or market now available or later developed. Itwill be appreciated that a trading environment, such as a futuresexchange as described herein, implements one or more economic marketswhere rights and obligations may be traded. As such, a tradingenvironment may be characterized by a need to maintain market integrity,transparency, predictability, fair/equitable access and participantexpectations with respect thereto. For example, an exchange must respondto inputs, such as trader orders, cancellation, etc., in a manner asexpected by the market participants, such as based on market data, e.g.prices, available counter-orders, etc., to provide an expected level ofcertainty that transactions will occur in a consistent and predictablemanner. In addition, it will be appreciated that electronic tradingsystems further impose additional expectations and demands by marketparticipants as to transaction processing speed, latency, capacity andresponse time, while creating additional complexities relating thereto.Accordingly, as will be described, the disclosed embodiments may furtherinclude functionality to ensure that the expectations of marketparticipant are met, e.g. that predictable system responses aremaintained.

The outbound responses to incoming orders and requests are typicallycommunicated via a medium, e.g. a channel or connection, referred to asa “feed,” that is separate from the market information feed which isgenerally broadcast to all of the market participants.

The disclosed embodiments recognize, however, that the market datamessages, e.g. order book updates, are typically responsive to incomingmessages from market participants, e.g. price update messages sent inresponse to trade orders, etc., which may have been received at anyprior time. Accordingly, a given market data message broadcast to allmarket participants in response to an incoming request message may beduplicative of a response message sent specifically to the sender ofthat request message who is also receiving the broadcasted market datamessage. For example, a market participant submitting a request, such asa new trade order, order modification, or order cancellation, whichimpacts the market, e.g. causes a change in price of one or more tradedproducts, may receive confirmation of the processing of their requestbefore the remaining market participants learn of the impact via anupdate to the market data.

Solutions to scenarios described above include generally reducing therequisite bandwidth of the communications, such as via encoding orcompression mechanisms, and introducing mechanisms, such as buffers, toalign, equalize or otherwise normalize the latencies of the separatecommunications paths. However, while reducing the bandwidth required foreach of the feeds attempts to address inefficiency, such reductions aresystem and hardware dependent in their effectiveness. Further, attemptsto achieve parity in terms of latency between two different data feedspublishing the same data has generally been a “best effort” solution.That is, while inherent latencies may be accounted for, it is difficult,for example, to account for transient events, such as errors orinterference, which may introduce additional and likely substantiallyrandom latencies.

As used herein, a financial message refers both to messages communicatedby market participants to an electronic trading system and vice versa.Financial messages communicated to the electronic trading system, alsoreferred to as “inbound” messages, may include request messages, such astrader orders, order modifications, order cancellations and the like, aswell as other message types. Financial messages communicated from theelectronic trading system, referred to as “outbound” messages, mayinclude messages responsive to inbound messages, such as confirmationmessages, or other messages such as market update messages, quotemessages, and the like.

Financial messages may further be categorized as having or reflecting animpact on a market, also referred to as an “order book” or “book,” for atraded product, such as a prevailing price therefore, etc., or nothaving or reflecting an impact on a market or a subset or portionthereof. For example a request to place a trade may result in a responseindicative of the trade either being matched with, or being rested on anorder book to await a suitable counter-order. In some cases, requestsmay elicit a non-impacting response, such as confirmatory responseissued temporally proximate to the receipt of the request and then causea separate market-impact reflecting response at a later time. Forexample, a stop order, fill or kill order, aka an immediate or cancelorder, or other conditional request may not have an immediate marketimpacting effect, if at all, until the requisite conditions are met.Accordingly, an acknowledgement or confirmation of receipt, e.g. anon-market impacting communication, may be sent to the trader simplyconfirming that the order was received. Upon the conditions being metand a market impacting result thereof occurring, a market-impactingmessage may be transmitted as described herein. It will be appreciatedthat additional conditions may be specified, such as a time or pricelimit, which may cause the order to be removed or otherwise canceled andthat such an event may result in another non-market-impactingcommunication instead. In some implementations market impactingcommunications may be communicated separately from non-market impactingcommunications, such as via a separate communications channel or feed.It will be further appreciated that various types of market data feedsmay be provided which reflect different market or aspects thereof.Market participants may then, for example, subscribe to receive thosefeeds of interest to them. For example, a particular market data feedmay only communicate information related to the top buy/sell prices fora particular product, referred to as “top of book” feed. In this case, arequest message may be considered market-impacting only if it affectsthe top buy/sell prices and otherwise is considerednon-market-impacting. As market impacting communications tend to be moreimportant to market participants then non impacting communications, thisseparation may reduce congestion and or noise among those communicationshaving or reflecting an impact on a market or portion thereof.Generally, the disclosed embodiments relate to obfuscating the marketdata having a market impact reflecting response messages, e.g.responsive to inbound messages, with other market impact reflectingmessages as will be described.

Market data feeds may further be characterized as providing a “view” or“overview” of a given market, an aggregation or a portion thereof. Forexample, a market data feed may convey the entire state of a market fora particular product, e.g. all presently resting buy/sell orders andprices associated therewith as well as trade notifications, etc., only aportion of a market, e.g. only the top 10 resting buy/sell orders,and/or an aggregation of multiple markets or portions thereof. As usedherein, a market impacting request may be said to impact the “view” ofthe market as presented via the market data feed.

Various types of market data feeds may be provided by electronic tradingsystems, such as the CME, in order to provide different types or subsetsof market information or to provide such information in differentformats. Examples include Market By Order, Market Depth (aka Market byPrice to a designated depth of the book), e.g. CME offers a 10-deepmarket by price feed, Top of Book (a single depth Market by Price feed),and combinations thereof. There may also be all manner of specializedfeeds in terms of the content, i.e. providing, for example, deriveddata, such as a calculated index). It will be appreciated that number,type and manner of market data feeds provided by an electronic tradingsystem are implementation dependent and may vary depending upon thetypes of products traded by the electronic trading system,customer/trader preferences, bandwidth and data processing limitations,etc. and that all such feeds, now available or later developed, arecontemplated herein.

Generally, the disclosed embodiments create a practical impediment toconsuming market information contained in messages sent only toparticular market participants. This impediment is based on anobfuscation, or lock, of the market information, and the inability ofthe particular market participant to remove obfuscation without acorresponding key that is delivered in a public message delivered to allmarket participants. While the degree to which the obfuscation may beovercome without the corresponding key may vary, in one embodiment theobfuscation need only be sufficient so as to delay any attempts todefeat the obfuscation without the corresponding key for enough time toensure that other market participants will have the public informationbefore the recipient can defeat the obfuscation. Therefore, anylatencies that exist in the system that would cause a private message toarrive at a particular market participant before a public messagearrives at all of the market participants would be mitigated by theinability of the particular market participant to consume, use, orunderstand the market data of the private message upon receipt.Essentially, the embodiments will ensure that private market data willbe held in a knowledge embargo until the public message allows forremoval thereof.

In one embodiment, obfuscation may be provided through encryptiontechniques. For example, the market data intended to be disguised may beobfuscated through the use of an encryption algorithm such that thecontent of the data is incomprehensible to any human or machine withoutthe use of key data configured to decrypt, or make comprehensible, theobfuscated market data. The key data, or encryption key, may be providedseparately to control access to the obfuscated, or encrypted, data. Forexample, the encryption key may be provided with, or as a part of, apublic message transmitted by an exchange to participants of a market. Aparticular market participant that receives the public message may usethe encryption key to un-encrypt, or decode, a previously receivedprivate message having market data encrypted by an algorithm designed tobe decoded by the encryption key.

In an embodiment, private messages with encrypted data will have aparticular corresponding encryption key to decode the encrypted data. Aparticular market participant may determine which public messagecontains the corresponding encryption key based on an identifier orother correlating indicium that is transmitted with a private message,but not obfuscated. The identifier may identify, or indicate, the publicmessage that contains the corresponding key. For example, the identifiermay be a number, and the number matches a number provided with thepublic message that contains the corresponding key. It will beappreciated that there may be other ways in which the private datamessage may be correlated with the public data message comprising thekey data therefore, and all such methods are contemplated herein.

In one embodiment, unique encryption keys, i.e. dummy or decoy uniquekeys, may be included with outbound public messages so as to furthernormalize the format and/or appearance of public messages. In this way,all messages may be presented with a similar appearance to the marketparticipants, and it may be more difficult to infer market informationfrom the mere existence of an encryption key in a public message. Also,multiple encryption keys, dummy keys, or combinations thereof may beprovided with a public message. For example, multiple encryption keysmay be included with a public message that discloses informationreflected in multiple private messages. Multiple dummy keys may then berequired to normalize the appearance of public messages that do not havemultiple encryption keys included. Also, random numbers of dummy keysmay be generated and included with messages to further obscure theexistence or intent of the actual encryption keys.

In an embodiment, a device may be provided for a market participant. Thedevice may be operable to receive a private message having obfuscateddata. The device may also be operable to receive a public message havingkey data configured to remove the obfuscation from the obfuscated dataof the private message.

In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods aredisclosed for managing communication of financial messages. Thedisclosed embodiments are preferably implemented with computer devicesand computer networks, such as those described with respect to FIG. 4,that allow users, e.g. market participants, to exchange tradinginformation. It will be appreciated that the plurality of entitiesutilizing the disclosed embodiments, e.g. the market participants, maybe referred to by other nomenclature reflecting the role that theparticular entity is performing with respect to the disclosedembodiments and that a given entity may perform more than one roledepending upon the implementation and the nature of the particulartransaction being undertaken, as well as the entity's contractual and/orlegal relationship with another market participant and/or the exchange.

A diagram for managing the communication of market data over networks532 and 534 to a plurality of market participants 550 and 540 withfinancial messages 510 and 530 is shown in FIG. 5. For example, aparticular market participant 540 may place an order with an exchange505 using a network 532. The exchange 505 may respond to the order bysending a private message 510 over the private circuit network 532 tothe particular market participant 540. The private message 510 is lockedor obfuscated in a manner that does not allow the particular marketparticipant 540 to know the content of the private message 510. Theexchange 505 may also generate a public message 520 and send it using amulticast circuit network 534. In an embodiment, the multicast circuitnetwork 534 may be considered a public network. In another embodiment,the multicast circuit network 534 may be a collection of private circuitnetworks for a plurality of market participants 540. A key designed tounlock the content of the private message 510 may be included with thepublic message 520. When the public message 520 is transmitted using themulticast network 534, both the particular market participant 540 andthe other market participants 550 may receive the public message 520.The particular market participant will then be able to use the key inthe public message 520 to unlock the content of the private message 510.

An exemplary trading network environment for implementing tradingsystems and methods is shown in FIG. 1. An exchange computer system 100receives orders and transmits market data related to orders and tradesto users, such as via wide area network 126 and/or local area network124 and computer devices 114, 116, 118, 120 and 122, as will bedescribed below, coupled with the exchange computer system 100.

Herein, the phrase “coupled with” is defined to mean directly connectedto or indirectly connected through one or more intermediate components.Such intermediate components may include both hardware and softwarebased components. Further, to clarify the use in the pending claims andto hereby provide notice to the public, the phrases “at least one of<A>, <B>, . . . and <N>” or “at least one of <A>, <B>, . . . <N>, orcombinations thereof” are defined by the Applicant in the broadestsense, superseding any other implied definitions herebefore orhereinafter unless expressly asserted by the Applicant to the contrary,to mean one or more elements selected from the group comprising A, B, .. . and N, that is to say, any combination of one or more of theelements A, B, . . . or N including any one element alone or incombination with one or more of the other elements which may alsoinclude, in combination, additional elements not listed.

The exchange computer system 100 may be implemented with one or moremainframe, desktop or other computers, such as the computer 400described below with respect to FIG. 4. A user database 102 may beprovided which includes information identifying traders and other usersof exchange computer system 100, such as account numbers or identifiers,user names and passwords. An account data module 104 may be providedwhich may process account information that may be used during trades. Amatch engine module 106 may be included to match bid and offer pricesand may be implemented with software that executes one or morealgorithms for matching bids and offers. A trade database 108 may beincluded to store information identifying trades and descriptions oftrades. In particular, a trade database may store informationidentifying the time that a trade took place and the contract price. Anorder book module 110 may be included to compute or otherwise determinecurrent bid and offer prices. A market data module 112 may be includedto collect market data and prepare the data for transmission to users. Arisk management module 134 may be included to compute and determine auser's risk utilization in relation to the user's defined riskthresholds. An order processing module 136 may be included to decomposedelta based and bulk order types for processing by the order book module110 and/or match engine module 106. A message management module 140 maybe included to, among other things, control the rate of acceptance ofmass quote messages in accordance with one or more aspects of thedisclosed embodiments. It will be appreciated that concurrent processinglimits may be defined by or imposed separately or in combination, as wasdescribed above, on one or more of the trading system components,including the user database 102, the account data module 104, the matchengine module 106, the trade database 108, the order book module 110,the market data module 112, the risk management module 134, the orderprocessing module 136, or other component of the exchange computersystem 100.

In an embodiment, the message management module 140 may include amessage generator configured to generate a first message with at least aportion of the first message obfuscated such that the obfuscated portionof the first message is incomprehensible without associated key dataconfigured to make the obfuscated portion comprehensible, and generatethe second message comprising the associated key data. The messagemanagement module 140 may also involve a message transmitter configuredto transmit the first message to a first market participant and thesecond message to a plurality of market participants.

The trading network environment shown in FIG. 1 includes exemplarycomputer devices 114, 116, 118, 120 and 122 which depict differentexemplary methods or media by which a computer device may be coupledwith the exchange computer system 100 or by which a user maycommunicate, e.g. send and receive, trade or other informationtherewith. It will be appreciated that the types of computer devicesdeployed by traders and the methods and media by which they communicatewith the exchange computer system 100 is implementation dependent andmay vary and that not all of the depicted computer devices and/ormeans/media of communication may be used and that other computer devicesand/or means/media of communications, now available or later developedmay be used. Each computer device, which may comprise a computer 400described in more detail below with respect to FIG. 4, may include acentral processor that controls the overall operation of the computerand a system bus that connects the central processor to one or moreconventional components, such as a network card or modem. Each computerdevice may also include a variety of interface units and drives forreading and writing data or files and communicating with other computerdevices and with the exchange computer system 100. Depending on the typeof computer device, a user can interact with the computer with akeyboard, pointing device, microphone, pen device or other input devicenow available or later developed.

An exemplary computer device 114 is shown directly connected to exchangecomputer system 100, such as via a T1 line, a common local area network(LAN) or other wired and/or wireless medium for connecting computerdevices, such as the network 420 shown in FIG. 4 and described belowwith respect thereto. The exemplary computer device 114 is further shownconnected to a radio 132. The user of radio 132, which may include acellular telephone, smart phone, or other wireless proprietary and/ornon-proprietary device, may be a trader or exchange employee. The radiouser may transmit orders or other information to the exemplary computerdevice 114 or a user thereof. The user of the exemplary computer device114, or the exemplary computer device 114 alone and/or autonomously, maythen transmit the trade or other information to the exchange computersystem 100.

Exemplary computer devices 116 and 118 are coupled with a local areanetwork (“LAN”) 124 which may be configured in one or more of thewell-known LAN topologies, e.g. star, daisy chain, etc., and may use avariety of different protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, etc. Theexemplary computer devices 116 and 118 may communicate with each otherand with other computer and other devices which are coupled with the LAN124. Computer and other devices may be coupled with the LAN 124 viatwisted pair wires, coaxial cable, fiber optics or other wired orwireless media. As shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary wireless personaldigital assistant device (“PDA”) 122, such as a mobile telephone, tabletbased compute device, or other wireless device, may communicate with theLAN 124 and/or the Internet 126 via radio waves, such as via WiFi,Bluetooth and/or a cellular telephone based data communicationsprotocol. PDA 122 may also communicate with exchange computer system 100via a conventional wireless hub 128.

FIG. 1 also shows the LAN 124 coupled with a wide area network (“WAN”)126 which may be comprised of one or more public or private wired orwireless networks. In one embodiment, the WAN 126 includes the Internet126. The LAN 124 may include a router to connect LAN 124 to the Internet126. Exemplary computer device 120 is shown coupled directly to theInternet 126, such as via a modem, DSL line, satellite dish or any otherdevice for connecting a computer device to the Internet 126 via aservice provider therefore as is known. LAN 124 and/or WAN 126 may bethe same as the network 420 shown in FIG. 4 and described below withrespect thereto.

As was described above, the users of the exchange computer system 100may include one or more market makers 130 which may maintain a market byproviding constant bid and offer prices for a derivative or security tothe exchange computer system 100, such as via one of the exemplarycomputer devices depicted. The exchange computer system 100 may alsoexchange information with other trade engines, such as trade engine 138.One skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous additionalcomputers and systems may be coupled to exchange computer system 100.Such computers and systems may include clearing, regulatory and feesystems.

The operations of computer devices and systems shown in FIG. 1 may becontrolled by computer-executable instructions stored on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. For example, the exemplarycomputer device 116 may include computer-executable instructions forreceiving order information from a user and transmitting that orderinformation to exchange computer system 100. In another example, theexemplary computer device 118 may include computer-executableinstructions for receiving market data from exchange computer system 100and displaying that information to a user.

Of course, numerous additional servers, computers, handheld devices,personal digital assistants, telephones and other devices may also beconnected to exchange computer system 100. Moreover, one skilled in theart will appreciate that the topology shown in FIG. 1 is merely anexample and that the components shown in FIG. 1 may include othercomponents not shown and be connected by numerous alternativetopologies.

As shown in FIG. 1, the Exchange computer system 100 further includes amessage management module 140 which may implement, in conjunction withthe market data module 112, the disclosed mechanisms for managing marketmessages containing financial data sent between an exchange and aplurality of market participants. However, as was discussed above, thedisclosed mechanisms may be implemented at any logical and/or physicalpoint(s) through which the relevant message traffic, and responsesthereto, flows or is otherwise accessible, including one or more gatewaydevices, modems, the computers or terminals of one or more traders, etc.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of a message management module 140according to one embodiment, which in an exemplary implementation, isimplemented as part of the exchange computer system 100 described above.

The embodiments described herein utilize trade related messages such asmass quote messages, individual order messages, cancellation messages,etc. The trading entity may have one or multiple trading terminalsassociated with the session. Furthermore, the financial instruments maybe financial derivative products. Derivative products may includefutures contracts, options on futures contracts, futures contracts thatare functions of or related to other futures contracts, swaps,swaptions, or other financial instruments that have their price relatedto or derived from an underlying product, security, commodity, equity,index, or interest rate product. In one embodiment, the orders are foroptions contracts that belong to a common option class. Orders may alsobe for baskets, quadrants, other combinations of financial instruments,etc. The option contracts may have a plurality of strike prices and/orcomprise put and call contracts. A mass quote message may be received atan exchange. As used herein, an exchange 100 includes a place or systemthat receives and/or executes orders.

FIG. 2 shows a system 200 for management of communication of a pluralityof financial messages to a plurality of market participants via anetwork 214 which, as described above, may be the network 420 describedbelow or network 124 or 126 described above, which may be implemented asa consolidated feed module 140 as described above. The plurality ofmessages may include a first financial message including data intendedto be received and comprehended by a first market participant of aplurality of market participants, and a second financial messagecorresponding to the first financial message, and including dataintended for all of the plurality of market participants. It will beappreciated that the disclosed embodiments may be applicable to othertypes of messages depending upon the implementation. Further, themessages may comprise one or more data packets, datagrams or othercollection of data formatted, arranged configured and/or packaged in aparticular one or more protocols, e.g. the FIX protocol, TCP/IP,Ethernet, etc., suitable for transmission via a network 214 as wasdescribed, such as the message format and/or protocols described in U.S.Pat. No. 7,831,491 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0096999 A1, bothof which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.Further, the disclosed message management system may be implementedusing an open message standard implementation, such as FIX or FIX/FAST,or by an Exchange-provided API.

The system 200 includes a processor 202 and a memory 204 coupledtherewith which may be implemented as processor 402 and memory 404 asdescribed below with respect to FIG. 4. The system 200 further includesfirst logic 206 stored in the memory 204 and executable by the processor202 to cause the processor 202 to obfuscate at least a portion of afirst financial message such that the obfuscated portion of the firstfinancial message is incomprehensible to the first market participantwithout associated key data configured to make the obfuscated portioncomprehensible to the first market participant. The system 200 alsoincludes a second logic 212 stored in the memory 204 and executable bythe processor 202 to generate a second financial message comprising theassociated key data. Alternatively, the second logic 212 may beconfigured to augment an existing second message with the associated keydata. The system 200 further includes a third logic 208 stored in thememory 204 and executable by the processor 202 to cause the processor202 to transmit, via the network 214, the obfuscated first financialmessage to a first market participant. The system 200 additionallyincludes a fourth logic 208 stored in the memory 204 and executable bythe processor 202 to cause the processor 202 to transmit, via thenetwork 214, the second financial message to a plurality of marketparticipants. The first financial message may be in response to a tradeorder, trade modification, trade cancellation, or combination thereofand comprise a confirmation message, update message, rejection message,or combination thereof. The first financial message may be generated bythe system 200 in response to a previous message submitted by the firstmarket participant.

In one embodiment, the first logic 206 may be executable by theprocessor 202 to obfuscate at least a portion of the first financialmessage by transforming readable plain text into unreadable ciphertextusing an encryption algorithm. The encryption algorithm may be asymmetric key algorithm, asymmetric algorithm, or any encryptionalgorithm configured to sufficiently obfuscate the portion of the firstfinancial message such that a brute force deciphering attempt would takeat least a length of time determined to be the delay between a receiptof a first financial message by a particular market participant and areceipt of a second financial message by at least one market participantof a plurality of the market participants. The first logic 206 may befurther executable to generate key data in the form of an encryptioncypher configured to make an obfuscated portion of a first messagecomprehensible to a first market participant. As an alternative, thesecond logic 212 may be further executable to generate the key data. Thesecond logic 212 may also be executable to include an identifier withkey data. The identifier may indicate an association between a firstfinancial message having an obfuscated portion and key data configuredto decode, or make understandable, the obfuscated portion.

In one embodiment, the second logic 212 may be further executable by theprocessor 202 to augment a second financial message with identificationdata recognizable by a first market participant to associate the decodekey in the second financial message with a first financial messagereceived by the first market participant. For example, theidentification data may be an identification number that matches anumber included in an un-obfuscated, or comprehensible, portion of thefirst message. In another embodiment, the identification data may berecognizable.

In one embodiment, the second logic 212 is further executable by theprocessor 202 to augment a financial message with data indicating keydata associated with multiple messages. For example, dummy keys, or keydata not operational to decode specific data, may be included in afinancial message. Dummy keys may be used to indicate the appearance ofnormality for financial messages that do not include key data. Also, ifin an embodiment multiple sets of key data are included in a financialmessage to decode multiple portions of multiple messages, includingmultiple dummy keys such that a standard number of keys, or amount ofkey data, is maintained, may provide a normal appearance to a marketparticipant.

In one embodiment, system 200 may include a fifth logic executable bythe processor 202 to generate a third message having a dummy key notfunctional to decode any message or portions of any message. Typically,a third message would be a public financial message, intended forreceipt by a plurality of market participants. This may be an additionaltechnique to maintain a common appearance for all public messages of amessaging system.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of a message receipt device 250 which may beutilized in conjunction with the previously described embodiments andwhich may be implemented as a computer device 114, 116, 118, 120, or 122of FIG. 1. The message receipt device 250 includes a processor 222 and amemory 224 coupled therewith which may be implemented a processor 402and memory 404 as described below with respect to FIG. 4. The messagereceipt device 250 further includes a first logic 226 stored in thememory 224 and configured to be executed by the processor 222 to causethe processor 222 to receive a first message, such as was describedabove, that includes market data, at least a portion of which isobfuscated such that it is indecipherable without an associated key, orkey data, configured to decipher the first message.

Alternatively, the first logic 226 may be configured to cause theprocessor 222 to retrieve the first message from the system 200 usingthe network 214. The message receipt device 250 also includes a secondlogic 228 stored in the memory 224 and configured to be executed by theprocessor 222 to cause the processor 222 to retrieve a second messagetransmitted to a plurality of market participants by the system 200 viathe network 214. The second message comprising market data and theassociated key, or key data, configured to decipher the obfuscatedmarket data of the first message. The message receipt device 250 alsoincludes a third logic 230 stored in the memory 224 and configured to beexecuted by the processor 222 to cause the processor 222 to decipher theobfuscated market data of the first message using the associated key, orkey data.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart showing operation of the system 200 of FIG.2. In particular FIG. 3 shows a computer implemented method for managingcommunication of a plurality of financial messages to a plurality ofmarket participants via a network 214 wherein the plurality of financialmessages includes a first financial message. The first financial messageincludes first market data intended to be received and comprehended by afirst market participant of the plurality of market participants. Theplurality of financial messages also includes a second financialmessage, corresponding to the first financial message, and includingsecond market data intended to be received and comprehended by all ofthe plurality of market participants. The operation includes obfuscatingat least a portion of a first message (Block 310), augmenting a secondmessage with key data (Block 320), transmitting the first message (Block330), and transmitting the second message (Block 340).

In an embodiment, the first financial message and the second financialmessage are considered a message pair and are generated in response tothe same market activity. For example, the first financial message maybe an order confirmation sent to the first market participant, and thesecond financial message may be a market price adjustment of anunderlying good or object as a result of the order.

An embodiment involves obfuscating (Block 310), by the processor 202, atleast a portion of the first market data of the first financial messagesuch that the obfuscated portion of the first market data isincomprehensible to the first market participant without associated keydata configured to render the obfuscated data comprehensible to thefirst market participant. The first financial message be a confirmationmessage, update message, rejection message, or combination thereof. Theobfuscating may be by any method operational to obscure theunderstanding of the portion of the first market data. In an embodiment,the obfuscating (Block 310) involves transforming readable plain textinto unreadable ciphertext using an encryption algorithm. Also, theassociated key data may include an encryption cypher sized to resist abrute force deciphering attempt for a length of time determined to bethe delay between a receipt of the first financial message and receiptof the second financial message by the particular first marketparticipant. Obfuscating may involve any process or method that rendersdata incomprehensible to humans and machines without the application ofthe associated key data.

In an embodiment, all of the first financial message may be obfuscated.In another embodiment, all of any market data included in the firstmessage may be obfuscated, and other data included in the first marketmessage may be comprehensible. In an embodiment, all the market data ofa financial message may be obfuscated, but a portion of the messageindicating identification data for a second financial message is notobfuscated. For example, the first financial message may include acomprehensible identifier and obfuscated market data. The identifier mayidentify the second market message having key data configured toun-obfuscate, or make comprehensible, the first financial message marketdata. In an embodiment the identifier in the first message may match anidentifier in the second message. In another embodiment, the identifierin the first financial message may correspond to data in a secondfinancial message, but not match the data in the second financialmessage. In an embodiment, the first message identifier may indicate acategory and/or classification directing the first market participant tothe corresponding second financial message. For example, if marketmessage feeds are assigned a color, the first financial messageidentifier may indicate the color and an individual message sequencenumber for the feed. In such an embodiment, the first message identifiermay read “RED002341” thus indicating that message number 002341 of the“RED” feed is the corresponding second financial message containing theassociated key data.

In an embodiment, the first financial message may be responsive to amessage previously received from the first market participant. Forexample, the first market participant may have submitted an order, andthe first financial message may be an order confirmation to confirm thatthe order has been placed. Further, in such an embodiment, the data ofthe first market message indicating what order is being confirmed may beobfuscated. In another embodiment, all substantive market data may beobfuscated. For example, the market data indicating the type of message,i.e. order confirmation, the corresponding order, the underlying objectof the order, the volume of the order, and any other information thatmay indicate a potential effect to the market is obfuscated. In otherembodiments, only selected types of market data are obfuscated. Forexample, only the underlying object and volume of the order may beobfuscated.

An embodiment involves augmenting (Block 320), by the processor 202, thesecond financial message corresponding to the first financial message,with the associated key data. The key data may be an encryption cypheroperable to decipher market data or messages encrypted with acorresponding encryption algorithm.

In an embodiment, augmenting, by the processor 202, the second financialmessage further involves augmenting the second financial message toinclude identification data linking the associated key data in thesecond financial message with the first financial message. For example,the second financial message may be augmented with an identifier thatmatches an identifier of the first financial message.

In an embodiment, the second financial message may be augmented withdata indicating the existence of a plurality of keys, or associated keydata for multiple financial messages. For example, a public message, inthis embodiment a second message, may involve market data related tomultiple private messages, one of which may be the first message. Asmultiple private messages may be partially or wholly obfuscated, thepublic message may include, or be augmented with, multiple keysconfigured to provide key data associated with the obfuscated privatemessages. In an embodiment, the second financial message may also beaugmented with dummy keys, or data resembling key data but notconfigured to render obfuscated data comprehensible. Dummy keys may beused to normalize the appearance of the second financial message in anembodiment involving multiple key augmentation. In another embodiment, athird financial message that may not have a corresponding privatemessage, or may not otherwise contain key data, may be augmented with adummy key, or dummy key data. The third message may also be transmittedto a plurality of market participants.

An embodiment involves transmitting (Block 330), by the processor 202via the network 214, the obfuscated first financial message to the firstmarket participant.

An embodiment involves transmitting (Block 340), by the processor 202via the network 214, the second financial message to the plurality ofmarket participants.

FIG. 7 depicts a flow chart showing operation of the message receiptdevice 250 of FIG. 6. The operation may include receiving the firstmessage (Block 350), receiving the second message (Block 360), andremoving the obfuscation of data in the first message with key datacontained in the second message (Block 370).

An embodiment involves receiving (Block 350) the first financial messagefrom system 200 using the network 214. The first financial messagecomprising market data. at least a portion of which is obfuscated suchthat the obfuscated portion of the first market data is incomprehensiblewithout associated key data configured to decode, or rendercomprehensible, the obfuscated data.

An embodiment involves retrieving (Block 360) the second messagetransmitted to a plurality of market participants the first financialmessage from system 200 using the network 214. The second messagecomprising the associated key data configured to decode, or rendercomprehensible, the obfuscated market data of first message.

An embodiment involves removing (Block 370) the obfuscation of theobfuscated market data of the first financial message using the key datafrom the second financial message. Removing the obfuscation may involvedecoding, deciphering, un-encrypting, or any other method of renderingthe obfuscated market data comprehensible.

It will be understood that at least a portion of the flow chart of FIG.3 (collection of blocks 380) may be implemented using the system 200 ofFIG. 2, and at least a portion of FIG. 7 (collection of blocks 390) maybe implemented using the message retrieval device 250 of FIG. 6. Oneskilled in the art will appreciate that one or more modules describedherein may be implemented using, among other things, a tangiblecomputer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions(e.g., executable software code). Alternatively, modules may beimplemented as software code, firmware code, hardware, and/or acombination of the aforementioned. For example the modules may beembodied as part of an exchange 100 for financial instruments.

Referring to FIG. 4, an illustrative embodiment of a general computersystem 400 is shown. The computer system 400 can include a set ofinstructions that can be executed to cause the computer system 400 toperform any one or more of the methods or computer based functionsdisclosed herein. The computer system 400 may operate as a standalonedevice or may be connected, e.g., using a network, to other computersystems or peripheral devices. Any of the components discussed above,such as the processor 202, may be a computer system 400 or a componentin the computer system 400. The computer system 400 may implement amatch engine, margin processing, payment or clearing function on behalfof an exchange, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, of which thedisclosed embodiments are a component thereof.

In a networked deployment, the computer system 400 may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a client-serveruser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 400 can alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a communications device, a wirelesstelephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner,a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personal trusted device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any other machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In a particularembodiment, the computer system 400 can be implemented using electronicdevices that provide voice, video or data communication. Further, whilea single computer system 400 is illustrated, the term “system” shallalso be taken to include any collection of systems or sub-systems thatindividually or jointly execute a set, or multiple sets, of instructionsto perform one or more computer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the computer system 400 may include aprocessor 402, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. The processor 402 may be a component ina variety of systems. For example, the processor 402 may be part of astandard personal computer or a workstation. The processor 402 may beone or more general processors, digital signal processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, servers,networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations thereof, orother now known or later developed devices for analyzing and processingdata. The processor 402 may implement a software program, such as codegenerated manually (i.e., programmed).

The computer system 400 may include a memory 404 that can communicatevia a bus 408. The memory 404 may be a main memory, a static memory, ora dynamic memory. The memory 404 may include, but is not limited tocomputer readable storage media such as various types of volatile andnon-volatile storage media, including but not limited to random accessmemory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electricallyprogrammable read-only memory, electrically erasable read-only memory,flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media and the like. In oneembodiment, the memory 404 includes a cache or random access memory forthe processor 402. In alternative embodiments, the memory 404 isseparate from the processor 402, such as a cache memory of a processor,the system memory, or other memory. The memory 404 may be an externalstorage device or database for storing data. Examples include a harddrive, compact disc (“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card,memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device,or any other device operative to store data. The memory 404 is operableto store instructions executable by the processor 402. The functions,acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or described herein may beperformed by the programmed processor 402 executing the instructions 412stored in the memory 404. The functions, acts or tasks are independentof the particular type of instructions set, storage media, processor orprocessing strategy and may be performed by software, hardware,integrated circuits, firmware, micro-code and the like, operating aloneor in combination. Likewise, processing strategies may includemultiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and the like.

As shown, the computer system 400 may further include a display unit414, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emittingdiode (OLED), a flat panel display, a solid state display, a cathode raytube (CRT), a projector, a printer or other now known or later developeddisplay device for outputting determined information. The display 414may act as an interface for the user to see the functioning of theprocessor 402, or specifically as an interface with the software storedin the memory 404 or in the drive unit 406.

Additionally, the computer system 400 may include an input device 416configured to allow a user to interact with any of the components ofsystem 400. The input device 416 may be a number pad, a keyboard, or acursor control device, such as a mouse, or a joystick, touch screendisplay, remote control or any other device operative to interact withthe system 400.

In a particular embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 4, the computer system400 may also include a disk or optical drive unit 406. The disk driveunit 406 may include a computer-readable medium 410 in which one or moresets of instructions 412, e.g. software, can be embedded. Further, theinstructions 412 may embody one or more of the methods or logic asdescribed herein. In a particular embodiment, the instructions 412 mayreside completely, or at least partially, within the memory 404 and/orwithin the processor 402 during execution by the computer system 400.The memory 404 and the processor 402 also may include computer-readablemedia as discussed above.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium thatincludes instructions 412 or receives and executes instructions 412responsive to a propagated signal, so that a device connected to anetwork 420 can communicate voice, video, audio, images or any otherdata over the network 420. Further, the instructions 412 may betransmitted or received over the network 420 via a communicationinterface 418. The communication interface 418 may be a part of theprocessor 402 or may be a separate component. The communicationinterface 418 may be created in software or may be a physical connectionin hardware. The communication interface 418 is configured to connectwith a network 420, external media, the display 414, or any othercomponents in system 400, or combinations thereof. The connection withthe network 420 may be a physical connection, such as a wired Ethernetconnection or may be established wirelessly as discussed below.Likewise, the additional connections with other components of the system400 may be physical connections or may be established wirelessly.

The network 420 may include wired networks, wireless networks, orcombinations thereof. The wireless network may be a cellular telephonenetwork, an 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, or WiMax network. Further, thenetwork 420 may be a public network, such as the Internet, a privatenetwork, such as an intranet, or combinations thereof, and may utilize avariety of networking protocols now available or later developedincluding, but not limited to TCP/IP based networking protocols.

Embodiments of the subject matter and the functional operationsdescribed in this specification can be implemented in digital electroniccircuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including thestructures disclosed in this specification and their structuralequivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. Embodiments ofthe subject matter described in this specification can be implemented asone or more computer program products, i.e., one or more modules ofcomputer program instructions encoded on a computer readable medium forexecution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus.While the computer-readable medium is shown to be a single medium, theterm “computer-readable medium” includes a single medium or multiplemedia, such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedcaches and servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” shall also include any medium that is capableof storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution bya processor or that cause a computer system to perform any one or moreof the methods or operations disclosed herein. The computer readablemedium can be a machine-readable storage device, a machine-readablestorage substrate, a memory device, or a combination of one or more ofthem. The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all apparatus,devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example aprogrammable processor, a computer, or multiple processors or computers.The apparatus can include, in addition to hardware, code that creates anexecution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., codethat constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a databasemanagement system, an operating system, or a combination of one or moreof them.

In a particular non-limiting, exemplary embodiment, thecomputer-readable medium can include a solid-state memory such as amemory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. Further, the computer-readable medium can be arandom access memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally,the computer-readable medium can include a magneto-optical or opticalmedium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device to capturecarrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over a transmissionmedium. A digital file attachment to an e-mail or other self-containedinformation archive or set of archives may be considered a distributionmedium that is a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include any one or more of a computer-readable medium or adistribution medium and other equivalents and successor media, in whichdata or instructions may be stored.

In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, can be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments can broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that can be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system encompasses software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, in an exemplary, non-limitedembodiment, implementations can include distributed processing,component/object distributed processing, and parallel processing.Alternatively, virtual computer system processing can be constructed toimplement one or more of the methods or functionality as describedherein.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsthat may be implemented in particular embodiments with reference toparticular standards and protocols, the invention is not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP,HTTPS) represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, script, or code) can be written in any form of programminglanguage, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can bedeployed in any form, including as a standalone program or as a module,component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computingenvironment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to afile in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a filethat holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in amarkup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program inquestion, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store oneor more modules, sub programs, or portions of code). A computer programcan be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computersthat are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this specification can beperformed by one or more programmable processors executing one or morecomputer programs to perform functions by operating on input data andgenerating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performedby, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logiccircuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC(application specific integrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, byway of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, andanyone or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory ora random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer area processor for performing instructions and one or more memory devicesfor storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will alsoinclude, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer datato, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g.,magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. However, a computerneed not have such devices. Moreover, a computer can be embedded inanother device, e.g., a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a mobile audio player, a Global Positioning System (GPS)receiver, to name just a few. Computer readable media suitable forstoring computer program instructions and data include all forms of nonvolatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of examplesemiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks;magneto optical disks; and CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor andthe memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purposelogic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subjectmatter described in this specification can be implemented on a devicehaving a display, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystaldisplay) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a keyboardand a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the usercan provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used toprovide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedbackprovided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visualfeedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from theuser can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactileinput.

Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can beimplemented in a computing system that includes a back end component,e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g.,an application server, or that includes a front end component, e.g., aclient computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browserthrough which a user can interact with an implementation of the subjectmatter described in this specification, or any combination of one ormore such back end, middleware, or front end components. The componentsof the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digitaldata communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples ofcommunication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a widearea network (“WAN”), e.g., the Internet.

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

The illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of the variousembodiments. The illustrations are not intended to serve as a completedescription of all of the elements and features of apparatus and systemsthat utilize the structures or methods described herein. Many otherembodiments may be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe disclosure. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from thedisclosure, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure.Additionally, the illustrations are merely representational and may notbe drawn to scale. Certain proportions within the illustrations may beexaggerated, while other proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, thedisclosure and the figures are to be regarded as illustrative ratherthan restrictive.

While this specification contains many specifics, these should not beconstrued as limitations on the scope of the invention or of what may beclaimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particularembodiments of the invention. Certain features that are described inthis specification in the context of separate embodiments can also beimplemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, variousfeatures that are described in the context of a single embodiment canalso be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in anysuitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be describedabove as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed assuch, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some casesbe excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may bedirected to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings and describedherein in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiringthat such operations be performed in the particular order shown or insequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, toachieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking andparallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation ofvarious system components in the embodiments described above should notbe understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments, and itshould be understood that the described program components and systemscan generally be integrated together in a single software product orpackaged into multiple software products.

One or more embodiments of the disclosure may be referred to herein,individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merely forconvenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of thisapplication to any particular invention or inventive concept. Moreover,although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any subsequent arrangementdesigned to achieve the same or similar purpose may be substituted forthe specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover anyand all subsequent adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the description.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b) and is submitted with the understanding that it will not be usedto interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition,in the foregoing Detailed Description, various features may be groupedtogether or described in a single embodiment for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure. This disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter may be directed toless than all of the features of any of the disclosed embodiments. Thus,the following claims are incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as defining separately claimedsubject matter.

It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description beregarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understoodthat it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that areintended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method for managingcommunication of a plurality of financial messages to a plurality ofmarket participants via a network, the method comprising: encrypting, bya processor, at least a portion of market data included in a firstfinancial message of the plurality of financial messages by transformingreadable plain text into unreadable ciphertext using an encryptionalgorithm comprising a symmetric-key algorithm or an asymmetric-keyalgorithm, such that the encrypted portion is incomprehensible to afirst market participant without an associated key; augmenting, by theprocessor, a second financial message corresponding to the firstfinancial message, with an associated key capable of decrypting theencrypted portion and with identification data linking the associatedkey in the second financial message with the first financial message;and transmitting, by the processor via the network, the first financialmessage to the first market participant and the second financial messageto the plurality of market participants; wherein regardless of whetherthe first financial message experiences a different transmission delaywhile being communicated via the network than a transmission delayexperienced by the second financial message and arrives at the firstmarket participant before the second financial message, the first marketparticipant is unable to comprehend the encrypted portion of the firstfinancial message without an associated key.
 2. The computer implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the second financial message may be providedwith, or as a part of, a public message transmitted by an exchange toparticipants of a market.
 3. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein multiple keys may be included with that second financialmessage.
 4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein all ofthe market data of the first financial message is encrypted.
 5. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first financialmessage is responsive to a message previously received from the firstmarket participant.
 6. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein a portion of the first financial message is not encrypted andcomprises data that indicates identification data contained in thesecond financial message.
 7. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein the associated key comprises an identifier indicating anassociation with the first financial message.
 8. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the first financial messagecomprises a confirmation message, update message, rejection message, orcombination thereof.
 9. The computer implemented method of claim 1,further comprised of generating a third message comprising at least onedummy key not configured to decrypt the encrypted market data andtransmitting the third message to the plurality of market participants.10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the firstfinancial message and the second financial message are a message pairgenerated in response to a same market activity.
 11. A system formanaging communication of a plurality of financial messages to aplurality of market participants via a network, the plurality ofmessages including a first financial message, the first financialmessage including data intended to be received and comprehended by afirst market participant of the plurality of market participants, and asecond financial message corresponding to the first financial messageand including data intended for all of the plurality of marketparticipants, the system comprising: a first logic stored in a memoryand configured to be executed by a processor to cause the processor toencrypt at least a portion of market data included in the firstfinancial message of the plurality of financial messages by transformingreadable plain text into unreadable ciphertext using an encryptionalgorithm comprising a symmetric-key algorithm or an asymmetric-keyalgorithm, such that the encrypted portion is incomprehensible to afirst market participant without an associated key; a second logicstored in the memory and configured to be executed by a processor tocause the processor to augment the second financial message with anassociated key capable of decrypting the encrypted portion of the firstfinancial message and with identification data linking the associatedkey in the second financial message with the first financial message; athird logic stored in a memory and configured to be executed by aprocessor to cause the processor to transmit, via a network, the firstfinancial message to the first market participant; and a fourth logicstored in the memory and configured to be executed by a processor tocause the processor to transmit, via the network, the second financialmessage to the plurality of market participants; wherein regardless ofwhether the first financial message experiences a different transmissiondelay while being communicated via the network than a transmission delayexperienced by the second financial message and arrives at the firstmarket participant before the second financial message, the first marketparticipant is unable to comprehend the encrypted portion of the firstfinancial message prior to receipt of an associated key capable ofdecrypting the encrypted portion of the first financial message.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the first logic configured to encrypt atleast the portion of the first financial message comprises transformingreadable plain text into unreadable ciphertext using an encryptionalgorithm.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the second logicconfigured to generate the second financial message comprises augmentingthe second financial message with identification data recognizable bythe first market participant to associate the associated key in thesecond financial message with the first financial message.
 14. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the associated key comprises an identifierindicating an association with the first financial message.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the second financial message furthercomprises data indicating a plurality of keys.
 16. A system forgenerating a plurality of messages to a plurality of marketparticipants, the plurality of messages including a first message, thefirst message including data intended to be received and comprehended bya first market participant, and a second message corresponding to thefirst message but including no indicia indicative of the first marketparticipant the system comprising: a processor and a non-transitorymemory coupled therewith, the memory storing computer-executableinstructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processorto: encrypt at least a portion of market data included in the firstmessage by transforming readable plain text into unreadable ciphertextusing an encryption algorithm comprising a symmetric-key algorithm or anasymmetric-key algorithm, such that an encrypted portion of the firstmessage is incomprehensible without an associated key, and augment thesecond message with an associated key configured to decrypt theencrypted portion and with identification data linking the associatedkey in the second financial message with the first financial message;and transmit the first message to the first market participant and thesecond message to the plurality of market participants; whereinregardless of whether the first financial message experiences adifferent transmission delay while being communicated via the networkthan a transmission delay experienced by the second financial messageand arrives at the first market participant before the second financialmessage, the first market participant is unable to comprehend theencrypted portion of the first financial message prior to receipt of theassociated key in the second financial message.